Mushroom Ravioli

I apologize to those of you without pasta rollers.  I'm having fun with my new kitchen gadget and tonight the most wonderful mushroom ravioli came from it!  Well, the ravioli tasted amazing, but it looked kind of funky.  I think I still need to get the hang of the consistency of pasta dough and rolling the dough thinner.  Or maybe I just need to remember that pasta expands a lot when you boil it, so I should make my ravioli and dumplings a lot smaller.  Ha ha!  Oh well, no matter.  Who doesn't love a giant ravioli right?  Especially if it tastes amazing!

I found the recipe for Mushroom Ravioli from foodgawker (it was submitted by a blog called "These Days") and I didn't make too many adjustments.  Just a few. 

Like....
- I didn't have cognac, so I omitted it.
- I didn't have semolina flour, so I used all purpose (I can't seem to find organic semolina anywhere either.  Anyone found this somewhere?  I usually get my flours from bulk sections because they're cheaper, but organic semolina is always absent)
- I had some portabella mushrooms, so I used crimini and portabella.  I LOVE portabella mushrooms.  You may not, it's purely a taste thing.

- I didn't have fresh thyme or parsley, so I used dried.  I'm sure the dish would have been really enhanced by the presence of fresh herbs.

-I had already bought ricotta cheese assuming that every recipe for mushroom ravioli I found on the internet would use ricotta, but low and behold this one asked for cottage cheese.  Whatever, the ricotta tasted great!

I think that's it. 

The pasta portion of the ingredients called for "oil", I used coconut oil.

Well, that probably looks like a lot of adjustments, but in my mind they were pretty minimal. 

I don't usually feel that I should write all the ingredients and the method on my blog if I haven't changed that much in the recipe and if I get the recipe from someone else's blog.  So here are the pictures from the ravioli process that happened tonight! 



I chopped the mushrooms in the food processor.  So much faster!



I also made the pasta dough in the food processor.  This was the consistency of the dough right before I started adding water tablespoon by tablespoon.

 

Pasta dough ready to be balled up for rest.  I think I ended up adding too much water again, but this time we're talking like, maybe a teaspoon or two instead of like half a cup more than needed (as in the dumpling fiasco).





Dough rolled out and mounds of filling ready for action!



Being a newbie to the pasta world, I had a bit of trouble making sure all the air was out of the ravioli.  I also brushed the surface of the pasta with a bit of water as I've seen done on cooking shows before.  While the water made the pasta stick better, it made getting air bubbles out a pain.  Any advice here?



The finished product!  Super yum. 


I just threw some extra mushrooms and garlic in a pot with some tomato sauce and italian seasoning and it made a great simple sauce for the ravioli! 

**Just a note!  I probably won't attempt to make this on a weeknight again.  At least not until I'm more proficient at working with pasta dough.  It always looks so uncomplicated, but it also always takes three times longer than I expect.  From start to finish, I think this took me about 2 hours total.  Way too long for a Wednesday night dinner prep, in my opinion.


In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear heavenly Father,
  thank you for little mouths to feed and little hands to hold.  Please bring our little Gregory into the outside world safely and soon!  Amen.

Beef and Mushroom Tart

So keeping with the lower carb meals tonight I present something mildly experimental.  I got this recipe from my mom a long time ago.  It's actually an hors d'oeuvre that we make for parties, but tonight I thought I'd try a bigger version and just make it into a meat pie/tart type of thing.  I think it turned out pretty well. 

Since I'm trying to keep the carbohydrate count low so I can pass this next 3 hour gtt I had to make a few changes to the recipe.  I don't actually know where she got the recipe for this, so hopefully it's okay that I'm posting a modified version. 

In the original recipe if you were going to make these as  hors d'oeuvres for a party you would smash slices of bread into muffin cups to use as tart shells and use a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup along with the other ingredients in the filling. 

For tonight's recipe I made my own whole wheat pie crust (so that'd be about 10-12 grams of carbs for 1/8 of the pie).  I didn't use the cream of mushroom soup, but used real mushrooms and thickened up some milk with some parsley and a bit of added garlic powder and onion powder instead.  If I had used the cream of mushroom soup 2 things would have happened:

1.  It would have tasted better.

2.  It would have had 6.75 more grams of carbs per slice (assuming you had 1/8th) of pie. 

Since I was planning on eating more than 1/8th of the pie I decided to skip the soup.  If you're not so worried about carbs I'd definitely say use the condensed soup (get the organic kind without msg!!). 

Otherwise, on it's own this was pretty good!  I had the flavor of the hors d'oeuvres in my head, so this pie wasn't as amazing as those, but not too shabby for a low carb, weekday meal. 

Here's the recipe if you want to make it!


Beef and Mushroom Tart

Ingredients
(Pie Crust)
1 1/3c whole wheat flour
1/2c butter cubed
1/2 tsp salt
3tbsp cold water

(filling)

1lb ground beef

1cup mushrooms diced

1/2 green pepper diced

1 small onion diced

3large cloves of garlic minced

1tbsp butter

1cup milk

1tbsp flour

1tbsp parsley

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder and onion powder to taste

1/3cup cheddar cheese grated

For the filling:

1.  Brown the ground beef. If you're not using lean meat drain off some fat.

2.  Add the mushrooms, green pepper, onion, garlic and butter and saute on medium heat until the onions are translucent and the green peppers are soft. 

3.  Sprinkle the flour over the beef and veggie mixture and stir it in. 

4.  Add the milk and bring everything to a boil over medium heat.  Allow the sauce to get thick and bubbly.

5.  Add the parsley, salt and pepper, and garlic powder and onion powder if you think it needs a bit more kick.  Stir everything to combine well.

6.  Take the mixture off the heat and cool down a bit.

For the crust:

1.  Combine the flour and salt in a food processor.  Just pulse it a couple times.

2.  Add the cubes of butter slowly while pulsing. 

3.  When the flour and butter look like coarse crumbs add the cold water slowly.

4.  When it comes together into a ball it's ready to roll out.

5.  Roll out the dough on a floured board until it's larger than the pie plate. 

6.  Carefully place your dough in the pie plate.  Roll the edges over and if you want to be fancy flute the edges. 

7.  Prick the bottom of the crust and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

Bringing it together.

1.  When the pie comes out fill it with your beef and mushroom mixture and top with cheddar cheese.

2.  Bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutes!



Before it went in the oven!





The finished product.



 Hope you enjoy it!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the Christmas Season and all of the joy that comes with celebrating your son's birth.  As we begin this New Year help us all to remember the gift you have given us in your son and the gift of our lives.  Help us to remember not to squander what we've been given and appreciate it and cultivate it every day.  Amen.

Beef Pastel




So I thought tonight would be another night I'd get to talk about some Filipino dish that has Spanish origins.  But try as I may, I couldn't find a single thing on Beef Pastel while searching the net.

Beef Pastel is like a Beef and Mushroom Pot Pie.  I did find a heck of a lot of articles on Filipino Pastel de Lengua while searching the net.  So naturally, I emailed mom to ask if there was some connection.  Low and behold, I discovered something that was glaringly obvious.... ha ha ha!  This is still so funny.

I guess my family just substituted regular stew meat for Ox tongue in the recipe for Pastel de Lengua.  So really what is supposed to be ox tongue meat pie, for us growing up was just a beef stew.  My mom never made the pie crust.  The funny thing is that I've had Pastel de Lengua quite a few times, but never noticed how....similar the taste was to Beef Pastel.  When I told Jon about this, he blamed the consistency of the lengua.  I guess that could throw you off.  Hah.  Well that gave me a little chuckle. 

Did any of that make sense to you guys? 

Well I don't think there's anything really Spanish about this dish or Pastel de Lengua except that the name of the dish is in Spanish.  That doesn't really mean too much since a while ago Spanish was one of the common languages spoken all over the Philippines.

Tonight's recipe is a bit of an anomaly in my repertoire because the recipe uses condensed soup!  I've definitely made it from scratch before, but that is a bit more time consuming and this tends to be a weeknight dish so I usually opt out of that.  Thank goodness someone finally made organic condensed cream of mushroom soup! 

Here's the recipe for the Beef Pastel.  If you want to get really authentic you can make it with boiled ox tongue and add green olives and chorizo de bilbao.  Yum.  I've got to ask my mom to make that sometime soon.  Oh yes, and put a pie crust on top of it!  I think Pastel means pie in Spanish or something, that's why the dish has that name.

Beef Pastel - Filipino Beef Stew (Pie)

(I think this is Lola's recipe too.)
Ingredients1lb        stew meat (Mom uses sirloin since she doesn't usually use the slow cooker)
1tbsp    butter or oil (grandma says use butter)
1/2 c    onions
1 can   condensed mushroom soup (if you're using organic it'll be a box of soup!)
2          potatoes
2         carrots
1c        peas
           mushrooms (as much as you like)

salt and pepper to taste



I doubled the recipe tonight with the hope that we would have enough leftovers for another night!



Method          
1.  Brown the beef lightly.  Drain meat and set aside. 

2.  Heat butter in pan, add onions and beef and saute until the beef is completely brown.  Add the can of mushroom soup (no water).  Simmer on low-medium heat until beef is almost
tender. 

3.  Add potatoes and carrots, cook until almost done. Add mushrooms and peas, cook until the peas are heated through and the potatoes and carrots are tender. 



4.  Season with  salt and pepper. 



I used the slow cooker tonight.  Not the best idea when you don't have much time.....



If you want, you can do it in the slow cooker to make the beef really, really tender.  Just add the vegetables (besides the onions) into the slow cooker an hour or two before you want it to finish. 

I was all wonky today and started late, yet for some reason I still decided to use the slow cooker.  Apparently I got mixed up and thought my slow cooker would act like a pressure cooker?  I don't know.  But after 2 hours in the slow cooker my meat was not as tender as I would have liked. 

Since Jon had a long day I decided to turn it on for another hour so it could cook more for when he got home.  I guess 1 more hour did the trick because he said that his beef was tender. 

So if you're going to use the slow cooker for this recipe, make sure that you have at least 3 hours for it to cook.

Ah yes, and if you cook it for a bit longer your sauce will reduce and be thicker too.  It's not supposed to look that thin.  Yikes, today was a kitchen disaster!



Give it a try!  My roomies in college seemed to like it well enough!

Oh yes, and today was the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel!!  Mikey's namesake day!  We unfortunately weren't able to make it to Mass because of Jon's long day and my inability to handle 2 loud toddlers at Mass solo.  I also tried to make a traditional French treat for the feast day, and while it tasted pretty good, it looked horrible and fell apart all over the place.  I'll spare you the ugly pictures.   If you have a pizzelle or gaufrette iron, you should try it.  If you have a regular waffle iron like me, steer clear!!  Next year I'll just make a goose like the English do.  Ha ha!


In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
St. Michael the Archangel defend us in the day of battle
be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil
may God rebuke him we humbly pray
and do thou O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Bistro Beef with Mushrooms

If you're looking for an alternative to cooking steak on a BBQ this recipe is for you!  I don't know why it's called Bistro Beef with Mushrooms.  Maybe the person who came up with the recipe worked in a bistro or something.  I don't know.  If I were going to name it I'd say Steak with Mushrooms and Red Wine -Thyme reduction.  Maybe Bistro Beef is better.  Eh. 

The first time I ever made this steak was right before Jon and I were married.  I remember preparing it for him and a friend of ours who was writing the Mass propers for our Nuptial Mass.  Yeah, our friends are that cool. 

One of the reasons I like making this steak is because it's low pressure.  Like I said in the last post, my dad is the King of Steak, so trying to make steak the way he does is a little nerve wracking.  Jon and I have tried to make dad's steak countless times and failed.  The last 2 or three times I've really failed.  Oh, it was a horrible mess.  I think we had to end up microwaving parts that were still bloody and other times chunks were so dry and tasteless.  I still can't get it just the way my dad does.  Even Jon has a better handle on how to cook that steak than I do.

So tonight I went low pressure, because I have all you lovely readers to impress now.  Ha ha!  All four of you.

This steak is a relatively easy dish with lots of flavor and looks pretty nice on a plate too. 

Again, the recipe comes from the checkered BH and G cook book, but I've taken a few liberties with it swapping out the dijon mustard with spicy brown mustard and also swapping the worcestershire sauce with balsalmic vinegar.  I also used a lot more mustard than the recipe calls for and salt and pepper.  All those celebrity chefs are always talking about seasoning, so I figure it couldn't hurt.  Lack of seasoning is the type of thing that gets you eliminated from Top Chef!

I was going to serve it with mashed potatoes and green beans tonight, but alas, when I returned home from the grocery I realized that I only had 4 teeny tiny potatoes, so we had garlic toast instead. 


Bistro Beef and Mushrooms
adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book 75th anniversary edition

2  8oz Top Sirloin Steaks

2 tbsp spicy brown mustard

2tbsp sunflower oil
1tbsp butter
1 8oz package of mushrooms sliced
1/3 sherry (or red wine)

2 tbsp water (or more sherry if you like)

1 tbsp balsalmic vinegar
2 teaspoons thyme (it said fresh, I had dried.....do what you have to do.)

**Just like the inihaw make sure your steaks are at room temperature before you start this process!!!

1.  Heat up your stainless steel skillet to medium high heat with 1tbsp of your oil.  (***Yes, please use stainless steel!!  Nonstick won't give you a good sear and you can't use cast iron for this recipe because it involves deglazing and acids.  I learned that tidbit from the registry guy at Bed Bath and Beyond before we got married.  Thanks registry guy.***) 

2.  Brush or spoon your mustard all over one side of your steaks and gently place them in your hot skillet.  Turn the heat down to medium at this point.

3.  Spoon mustard on the other side while it's in the pan (to prevent messy and lost mustard) and season with salt and pepper.  I cooked my steak for 7 minutes on the first side (don't move it or else it won't sear nicely) and about 5 minutes on the second side for medium well steaks.  Just a hint of pink in the middle, still moist, not dry at all.  If you like it more rare, shave off some minutes.  I wouldn't recommend going to well done unless you like dry, tasteless meat.  We use grass fed meat cut by our local butcher so the risk of e. coli is significantly less (at least that's what they said on Food Inc).

3 1/2.  Take the steaks out and let them rest on a plate while you do the next steps.  Please, please let your steaks rest for at least 5 minutes.  It's crucial.  Anthony Bourdain says so.  The steaks continue to cook a little and if you cut into the steak immediately all the juices will pool in the spot where you cut it and you will end up with a dry steak. 

4.  Add butter and remaining tbsp of oil to your skillet and all the brown stuff that will be stuck to the pan.  Don't worry, this is the base for your sauce.  Add your mushrooms and saute until they start to soften.

5.  Add the sherry and a little bit of water and deglaze your pan.  That basically means once the liquid starts to sizzle in your pan get the stuck-on-stuff off the bottom of the pan as fast as you can and mix it into the liquid.  It will start to come together into a nice sauce.  Add your balsalmic vinegar and your thyme and let it simmer for another minute or two on low heat until it comes together into a nice reduction.

6.  Spoon the sauce and mushrooms over your steaks and serve immediately.

Mmmmmmm.....steak.

Please ignore the bad photography and try making this steak!

I've never used spicy brown mustard for this recipe before tonight, but I think it really took the dish up a notch.  The flavor was really pronounced and it just went sooooo well with the balsamic sherry reduction.  You have to try the steak. 

Dad, I'm going to have to make this for you next time you come over.  It's really different, but you'll like it.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for new and exciting recipes, a feeling of accomplishment, the farmers who raise cattle the hard way, and this steak which graced our dinner table.  Thank you for our feast tonight on your Mother's Birthday.  Amen.